Bharper

Barron's Rags on Jos A. Bank

This is typical of Barrons: the stock moves as a result of the article for three days, and then months later you realize the publication is a contrarian indictator. JOSB up 26% since this article came out, S&P 500 down 33%.

Barron's Rags on Jos A. Bank

Yeah that looks right. One issue is that inventories are always seasonally highest in the 3Q ahead of the holidays...at 2Q they were $196m, 1Q $180 mil, 1Q, and $184 mil at year end 2006.

Also inventories at the end of the 3Q...at 225 mil, were up 11% YoY, about the same as their sales...I don't see the big issue here. Of course Barrons is in the business of selling magazines...

As one analyst of the co told me "this is a stock that the street loves to hate..." partially b/c management doesn't give guidance and doesn't take Q&A on the conf calls.